Google Further Distancing Itself From Google+

You no longer need a Google+ account to share content, comment, and create a channel on YouTube.

Google on Monday took another step to distance itself from its struggling social network.

The Web giant announced that it's lifting the requirement that you must have a Google+ account to share content, communicate with others, and create a channel on YouTube. Now, all you'll need is a Google Account.

Over time, the change will take effect for all of Google's services, but the Web giant is starting with YouTube. Google said the change will roll out in stages over several months.

"People have told us that accessing all of their Google stuff with one account makes life a whole lot easier," Bradley Horowitz, VP of streams, photos, and sharing, said in a statement. "But we've also heard that it doesn't make sense for your Google+ profile to be your identity in all the other Google products you use."

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The company also promised to offer "better options" in the future for managing and removing your Google+ profile for those who created an account in the past but don't plan on using it.

The change comes after Google just last week announced it is shutting down Google+ Photos and pushing people to its new Photos service. Google+ photos will go away first on Android before it's wiped from the Web and iOS. Google said the move is aimed at ensuring that "everyone has the best photos experience we can deliver."

Google also in September quietly shelved the requirement that new Google account creators also create a Google+ profile during the sign-up process. That was a pretty big step for the search giant, considering Google had been mandating this Google+ account creation for around 2.5 years before that.

Angela has been a PCMag reporter since January 2012. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a reporter for SC Magazine, covering everything related to hackers and computer security. Angela has also written for The Northern Valley Suburbanite in New Jersey, The Dominion Post in West Virginia, and the Uniontown-Herald Standard in Pennsylvania. She is a graduate of West Virginia University's Perely Isaac Reed School of Journalism.
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